CesiumAstro closes $730M round at valuation above $4.5B

CesiumAstro closed a $730M financing round on 6 November, which Payload reports puts its valuation above $4.5B. Janus Henderson led the equity round, which also included Insight Partners, Sands Capital, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, Woven Capital, Incharge Capital, Magnetar, AV and NewSpace Capital.

The round combines $630M in equity with a $100M debt facility from the Export-Import Bank of the United States and JPMorgan. The company described it as a downpayment on Synchronicity, a planned constellation of 737 satellites designed to broadcast over Ku-, Ka- and V-band frequencies with onboard compute.

The announcement came just over a month after CesiumAstro's first satellite, Element-1, launched on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare in October. Element-1 is the first of eight planned spacecraft, with launches secured between 2028 and 2029. Founder and CEO Shey Sabripour said the company is working out what partnerships it needs to reach 350 satellites in orbit by 2032.

CesiumAstro bought three companies in the past year, and Sabripour said it has its eyes on more. It also plans to use the new funds to expand manufacturing capacity.

Sourcepayloadspace.com